Dear Susan,
Aristotle was a big believer in moderation, and in Washington that goes for ethics too. I don’t know Stuart Taylor, but he has always struck me as someone who is perhaps a little too honorable for journalism as it is now practiced. A few months ago he almost took a job with Starr, because he believed in Starr’s work and he thought he could perform some service to the nation. He considered the possibility for a few days, apparently not realizing that even to be seen considering such an offer would be used against him in the midst of this partisan fight. Eventually he decided to remain a journalist, and went on national television and actually castigated himself for not doing his patriotic duty whatever the personal cost. I thought he behaved so honorably throughout that period that it looked awkward. People are supposed to be a little more calculating. Furthermore, they are not supposed to be that brutally candid about their own behavior when they go on TV. The medium is about self-love, not about holding oneself to high standards.
Same goes for having drinks at the Jefferson bar. Calculating people would see how hostile people could twist that around. Starr staffers are not supposed to be doing backgrounders with the press anymore. Taylor, now that he is a target of the Clintonistas, has to be mindful of his reputation. But neither seem very calculating (nor does Starr, for that matter). The Jefferson bar, as you say, looks just the way Oliver Stone would want it to look. It’s the kind of dark locale where a Groton alum from the State Department would tell an Exeter grad at the CIA to assassinate the president of Tanzania. And the place has that the atmosphere of infamy hanging over it ever since Dick Morris picked the Jefferson as the place for his prostitute trysts.
Bennett is actually profiled in today’s New York Times. It’s the same profile that is done about every prosecutor: tough as nails; hated by the people he goes after, dogged, imposing, but warm and witty in private. So there you have it: Jimmy Stewart journalist has drinks with Charles Bronson prosecutor, and there I am at the fringes like Rosencranz or Guildenstern. Some of us are born to be bit players, others have bitness thrust upon us.
All the best,
David
